- Corporate Airlines Flight 5966
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Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 Accident summary Date October 19, 2004 Type Controlled flight into terrain Site Pettis Township, Adair County, near Kirksville, Missouri, U.S. Passengers 13 Crew 2 Injuries 2 Fatalities 13 Survivors 2 Aircraft type British Aerospace Jetstream 32 Operator Corporate Airlines Tail number N875JX Flight origin Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Destination Kirksville Regional Airport 
Seat map of Corporate 5966 by the NTSB
Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 was a flight route from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, United States to Kirksville Regional Airport in unincorporated Adair County, Missouri, near the city of Kirksville. Corporate Airlines (now RegionsAir, defunct) flew the route as part of the AmericanConnection network, an affiliate of American Airlines. On October 19, 2004, a Jetstream 32 twin-engine turboprop flying the route crashed on the approach to Kirksville Airport, killing thirteen people and seriously injuring two.[1]
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilots’ failure to follow established procedures and properly conduct a non-precision instrument approach at night in instrument meteorological conditions, including their descent below the minimum descent altitude before required visual cues were available (which continued un-moderated until the airplane struck the trees) and their failure to adhere to the established division of duties between the flying and non-flying (monitoring) pilot. The NTSB analysis of the Cockpit Voice Recorder suggests that both pilots were looking outside the cockpit for visual cues to the location of the airport and failed to realize how low they had descended below the glidepath.
Contributing to the accident were the pilots’ failure to make standard callouts and the current Federal Aviation Regulations that allow pilots to descend below the minimum descent altitude into a region in which safe obstacle clearance is not assured based upon seeing only the airport approach lights. The pilots’ failure to establish and maintain a professional demeanor during the flight and their fatigue likely contributed to their degraded performance.[2]
According to The Kansas City Star newspaper, some of the 13 passengers were doctors from other states who had been due to attend a seminar at the A. T. Still University. These included Steven Z. Miller, Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a prominent figure in "humanism in medicine" movement.[3]
68-year old John Krogh and his assistant, 44-year old Wendy Bonham were the survivors of the crash.[4]
References
- ^ [1], Page 5, 15 of 110]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Bayot, Jennifer. Steven Z. Miller, A Pediatrician, Is Dead at 46, The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2004
- ^ "Crash claims Utahn; 2 live," Deseret News
External links
- "Thirteen die in US plane horror" on BBC News
- NTSB Preliminary Report from http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp NTSB Aviation Accident Database
- NTSB Final Report
- Archived American Airlines page about Corporate 5966
- Link to archived press statements by Corporate Airlines
- "Crash Survivor Relives Escape," CBS News
- "'I didn't believe it was happening'," Deseret News
Aug 13 Air Tahoma Flight 185
Aug 24 Russian aircraft bombings
Oct 14 Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701
Oct 14 MK Airlines Flight 1602
Oct 19 Corporate Airlines Flight 5966Oct 24 Martinsville crash
Nov 21 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210
Nov 28 KLM Flight 1673
Nov 30 Lion Air Flight 538Incidents resulting in at least 50 deaths shown in italics. Deadliest incident shown in bold smallcaps.Categories:- Accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain
- Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners in the United States
- Adair County, Missouri
- Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2004
- Disasters in Missouri
- Accidents and incidents involving the Handley Page Jetstream
- 2004 in Missouri
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